Wow—Finally Some Honesty From the Government

The trains around San Francisco (the BART, or “Bay Area Rapid Transit”) is a mess tonight, as it is most nights. Just ask anyone from San Francisco! Tonight is such a mess, though, that whoever runs the @SFBART Twitter account decided to be very honest with its indignant followers.

@shakatron BART was built to transport far fewer people, and much of our system has reached the end of its useful life. This is our reality.

Why anyone would tweet at government Twitter accounts remains an open question. (Although, to be fair, so too does the question of why anyone tweets at all.) In any case, it is strangely reassuring to know that somewhere behind the implacable and expressionless face of the state another human being has relinquished the fantasy of individual agency in a world built on structures, both material and immaterial, more vast than we can ever comprehend.